It is known that some beverage bottles generally made of plastic are provided with aseptic dispenser caps known as “push-pull” caps, which are structured to permit a user to easily dose the amount of beverage delivered from the bottle, and to hermetically seal the bottle upon re-closure.
For example, patent EP 1 065 150 describes a push-pull aseptic dispenser cap comprising a main cylindrical body, which has a vertical reference axis and is provided with an internally threaded ring that is screwed onto the thread obtained on the outside wall of the neck of the bottle. The main cylindrical body further comprises a first flat upper annular wall, orthogonal to the reference axis, which abuts against the upper edge of the neck, and a second flat upper wall that is above the first annular wall in a plane parallel thereto.
The push-pull aseptic dispenser cap further comprises a tubular projection that protrudes cantilevered from said second flat upper wall, in the opposite direction to the neck, so as to extend completely outside and above said neck, and a cylinder shaped dispenser cap, provided at the top with a central hole through which the beverage can flow out and provided at the bottom with a cylindrical stop element.
The dispenser cap is slidingly coupled to the tubular projection so that it can be moved axially between a lowered closed position, in which the cylindrical stop element is fitted in a fluid-tight manner in a central hole obtained in the second flat wall in order to seal the bottle hermetically, and a raised delivery position, in which the cylindrical stop element is at a distance from the second flat wall so as to disengage the through hole and place the space inside the bottle in communication with the central through hole in the dispenser cap, via a central channel in the projection, and thus to allow the beverage to be removed from the bottle.
The push-pull aseptic dispenser cap further comprises an external capsule shaped so as to be coupled to the main cylindrical body and thus internally contain the dispenser cap to protect it.
The push-pull aseptic dispenser caps of the type described above are widely used in the beverage bottle market in that they have made it possible to eliminate the paper-aluminium disk that was used in previous caps as a membrane to close the neck in order to guarantee the maintenance of the hermetic seal of the bottle prior to its use. In other words, the cap described above has an improved structure capable of both simplifying the processes of manufacturing the cap and of coupling it to the bottle, with a subsequent reduction in production costs, and of making the part handier for beverage consumers to use.
Recently, however, some needs have emerged, on the part of users and on the part of the producers of bottled beverages, which the present invention aims to satisfy.
Firstly, the need is felt to reduce the risk of contamination of the beverage via the cap, before and during the use of the bottle.
In that respect a first point to note is that the cap described above has some structural mechanical problems that seriously affect the bottlers capacity to withstand top loading, and therefore represent limits in terms of the volume of the bottle packaging. The weight of the other bottles stacked on top of a bottle is discharged, through the capsule, directly onto the dispenser cap and onto the tubular projection outside the neck and may in certain conditions, for example when a maximum weight limit is exceeded, cause plastic deformation/warping of the dispenser cap and of the tubular projection, and deterioration of the closing mechanism defined by the closing element and the hole. In this case, when an excessive downward force is applied by the bottom of the bottle on the closing element of the bottle beneath it, said closing element causes flaring of the hole, damaging the hermetic seal of the cap in the closed position and thus exposing the beverage to the risk of contamination.
At present, this problem is overcome by limiting the number of layers of bottles that are stacked in the packaging to below a maximum limit and by subjecting the cap to two sterilization processes before it is coupled to the bottle, that is, ionizing radiation and immersion of the cap in a sanitizing liquid.
In addition, the cap is also particularly prone to being a vehicle of contamination of the beverage during the use of the bottle by the user. During the use of the bottle, the dispenser cap repeatedly comes into contact with the hands of the user who, in practice, tends to take hold of it in order to more easily overcome the non-negligible resistance thereof to slide on the projection.
A second need is to reduce the risk of suffocation of users due to accidentally swallowing parts of the cap.
In that respect, it should be noted that the cap described above can easily be detached from the bottle. A simple manual operation is all that is required to unscrew the main body from the neck. Owing to the ease with which the cap can be detached, the user is able refill the bottle several times. Of course, since the bottle is designed and produced to be used just once, using it for too long and repeatedly fitting; removing the cap results in a weakening/wearing out of the parts of said cap, in particular of the dispenser cap, which will in time gradually tend to become detached from the projection and thus give rise to said risk of swallowing.
US 2015 266 634 A1 describes tubular fastening means fixed to the neck of the bottle and a cap member coupled to the tubular fastening means to close the bottle. The tubular fastening means are suitable to contain an article and comprise a tubular body with slots in the side, while the cap member is provided with an inner tubular portion that slides inside the tubular means between a closed position of the slots and an open position thereof so that the article contained in the tubular means is poured into the bottle. The cap described in US 2015 266 634 merely has the function of closing the bottle and is not suitable to be easily gripped between the lips/teeth of the user to allow the latter to drink the beverage contained in the bottle. Moreover, the cap member has the structural mechanical problems described above in that the weight of bottles stacked on top of it would tend to deform the upper annular portion 114 which protrudes above the neck of the bottle even in its closed condition.
US 2009 057 262 A1 describes a conventional bottle cap including an additive holding unit which is supported in the mouth of the bottle by an upper flange and contains an additive, and a tubular unit mounted so as to slide in the additive holding unit from and towards an extracted position in which it opens openings in the side of the additive holding unit to discharge the additive into the bottle, and is closed at the top by a seal. US 2009 057 262 is not suitable for use as a push-pull aseptic cap because once the upper seal has been opened the beverage is exposed to contamination.
FR 1 375 655 A describes a conventional dispenser spout that can be fitted by a user to the neck of the bottle and which is manually axially moved by the user to control the amount of beverage to be discharged. The dispenser spout described in FR 1 375 655 is not suitable for use as a push-pull aseptic cap because the beverage is highly susceptible to contamination both before and during the use of the bottle.
US 2009 230 075 A1 describes a conventional push-pull cap that is not suitable for use as an aseptic cap because during the use of the bottle it is repeatedly held by the user and can accidentally become detached from the bottle.
US 2007 0199 914 and DE 297 08 202 U1 also describe conventional push-pull caps in which the tubular projection always protrudes from the top of the neck and is therefore prone to the structural mechanical problems described above.
The Applicant has therefore conducted an in-depth study for the purpose of developing an improved push-pull aseptic dispenser cap, capable of achieving the following objectives:                reduce contamination of the beverage:        increase the top load that the cap is able to withstand during the packaging of the bottle;        simplify the sterilization process;        assure the “single use” of the bottle in order to reduce the risk of parts of the cap being swallowed.        